Haier unveils smart laundry room - ‘Internet of Clothing’
The world's largest home appliances manufacturer has lifted the covers on something truly interesting.
At this year's 2019 Appliances - Electronics World Expo (AWE 2019) in Shanghai, Haier showed off its smart laundry room, which it asserts is a world-first. The one-stop solution combines washing, air-drying and folding with Haier's latest smart products and technologies.
The company has pioneered an 'Internet of Clothing' (IoC), which apparently is a networked laundry solution that connects the smart washing machine, laundry rack, and folding machine.
First, the washing machine completes a wash cycle after analysing the clothing material, water quality and detergent type. Then the smart folding machine, installed on the smart laundry rack, detects if the clothes are thoroughly dried. It would then send a reminder via Haier's U+ app to suggest that the user launch the auto-folding function. The appliance would then analyse the type of clothes and fold them in an appropriate manner. The progress can be checked on the app at any time.
"In addition to upgrading the technologies in our laundry appliances, we wanted to create a smart laundry room scenario that can help customers organise tasks in an unprecedented way," says Haier vice president and Washing Machine general manager Li Yang.
"The appliances in the network now interact with each other to monitor the progress of washing and drying efficiently, thus providing a convenient, hassle-free laundry experience.
Haier's IoC platform works with more than 4,800 apparel resources to integrate washing machines, smart wardrobes, dressing mirrors, ironing machines and more to offer customers a smart solution covering washing, fabric care, storage, matching and shopping.
At AWE 2019, Haier demonstrated its comprehensive solutions in the forms of a smart closet and smart laundry room. The customised scenarios included the following highlights:
- 3D virtual clothing try-on service for apparel retail stores
- Smart styling according to weather, scenarios and preferences
- Locating clothes accurately in a smart wardrobe via an advanced management system
- Professional ironing with automatic material analysis
- Smart shoe washing machine that takes care of washing and caring with most advanced AI image recognition technology
Li says as the Internet of Things (IoT) advances rapidly, Haier's global smart household strategy aims to build a brand ecology centred on lifestyle, and the smart laundry room scenario under IoC is a significant component that showcased the company's progress in establishing a smart laundry ecosystem.
"As an open platform, Haier's IoC is looking to work with all kinds of resources to further expand the scenarios and provide more smart solutions for our customers," Li concludes.
